Dr. Tanya Sanabria is an assistant professor at California State University, Los Angeles, and a Fellow at the Latina Futures 2050 Lab. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Irvine, and her B.A. from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

A proud Los Angeles native, Sanabria was raised by her single mother, a Costa Rican immigrant. Sanabria’s personal and educational background fuels her commitment to improving equity in education through rigorous research and mentoring.

Her work focuses on educational inequality, employing quantitative methods to examine the long-term effects of early educational labels on degree attainment and labor market outcomes. She also investigates racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in academic feedback responses in higher education. At the Latina Futures 2050 Lab, her research examines the socio-economic and college-going impacts of COVID-19 disruptions on Latina high school seniors. Sanabria’s work has been funded by the National Academy of Education Spencer Foundation and published in Socius, Educational Researcher, Research in Higher Education, and Social Sciences. Before joining Cal State LA, she interned at the U.S. Census Bureau, linking school administrative data with census data.

As the first in her family to complete college, Sanabria is passionate about mentoring students at a Hispanic Serving Institution, many of whom are also first-generation and from underserved communities. She is dedicated to fostering a supportive and inclusive environment that encourages academic excellence and personal growth among undergraduate and graduate students.